This is a nonprovisional utility patent application that is also described and claimed as an ornamental design of my invention in a concurrently filed design patent application entitled BICYCLE LOCKING STAND.
Not applicable.
This invention is an implementation of a method that is the subject of a nonprovisional utility patent application filed by Barbara Eber-Schmid entitled METHOD OF PROTECTING URBAN PLANTED TREES FROM PARKED BICYCLES AND OTHER VEHICLES. Said nonprovisional utility patent application was filed concurrently with this patent application for my invention that is described herein. Both applications and the inventions described therein are commonly owned by the NYC Street Tree Consortium, Inc. (a.k.a. TREES NEW YORK). Funding for the development of the invention described herein was provided by TREES NEW YORK.
This invention relates to a modular bicycle rack used for parking bicycles in urban areas in order to prevent bicycle theft. It can be used as a stand-alone bicycle park-and-lock stand. However, it is intended primarily for use in combination with other such modules such that the plurality of said modules combine to surround and protect urban planted trees from damage to their trunks from bicycles that lean against the trees or from locking devices that attach to the trees. Since tree planting on city streets is necessary for protection of the urban environment, this invention insures that the trees, and therefore the environment, will remain safe. Furthermore, with this invention several bicycles can be parked around a single tree. The availability of secure bicycle parking on city streets further promotes the use of bicycles for transportation in place of automobiles. Encouraging the use of bicycles for transportation is also helpful to the environment as it decreases pollution from air emissions from automobile exhausts.
Bicycles have been an important mode of transportation for both commercial and recreational purposes since the mid-nineteenth century. In some countries, they have been the principal mode of private transportation for average citizens. This is the case in cities like Amsterdam (the Netherlands) and Beijing (the Peoples Republic of China). In the United States, motor vehicles represent the principal mode of private transportation. However, a significant number of bicycles are used. Most cities and towns in the United States provide curbside or angle parking for motor vehicles. In order to prevent theft of a parked motor vehicle, the vehicle owner need only remove the key and lock the car. Although many cars are nonetheless stolen, motor vehicle theft is somewhat difficult since cars are heavy and not very portable. Bicycles are much easier to steal. A thief need merely pick up a parked bicycle and carry it away. To keep their parked bicycles safe from bicycle thieves, owners often attach their bikes securely to immobile objects using commercially available locking devices. Many municipalities, universities, and other public property owners provide conveniently situated bicycle racks to accommodate bike riders. However, except for a small number of urban locations, public bicycle racks are few and far between. Therefore, it is not uncommon to see bicycles chained to stop signs, lamp posts, and metal fences on city streets. In fact, bike riders are very creative in choosing an immobile object that would accommodate a locked parked bicycle. Urban planted trees present excellent opportunities to bicycle riders that seek parking spaces. Unfortunately, the metal from bicycles and their locking devices (e.g., chains) cause damage to tree trunks that are more fragile than they appear. Many trees ultimately die from such abuse.
Since the late nineteenth century, tree guards have been used to protect tree trunks from damage. These usually take the form of wrought iron grillwork that surround the tree trunks. They are normally permanently mounted around the tree while the tree is still a sapling since a tree is most vulnerable when it is young. As time passes, the diameter of a tree trunk increases until the metal from the tree guard itself can damage and ultimately strangle the tree. In any event, there is often very little space between the metal from the tree guard and the trunk of a mature tree. Trees surrounded by tree guards do not make very good places to park bicycles.
To protect urban trees from damage by bicycles and other vehicles, planners often plant trees inside soil beds surrounded by brick or cement wells. Clearly, one cannot park and lock a bicycle at such a location. Sometimes a small wrought iron fence would protrude from the stone structure surrounding the tree bed, and such an extension could facilitate bicycle parking. However, such structures are often expensive and unsightly.
Barbara Eber-Schmid conceived of a method to both protect urban planted trees from parked bicycles and, at the same time, to provide the location of said trees as a welcoming site for bicycle parking. Her method utilizes a plurality of modular bicycle racks or bicycle locking stands to surround a tree in such a manner as to prevent a bicycle from having access to the tree. The modular bicycle locking stands are firmly anchored to the ground surrounding said tree sufficiently far away as not to cause damage themselves to any element of the tree such as the tree trunk or roots. Said plurality of modular bicycle locking stands present to bicycle owners a much larger perimeter than the circumference of the tree trunk and permit a plurality of bicycles to be parked in the vicinity of a single tree.
Modular bicycle park-and-lock stands of varying designs and constructions are in use in cities and towns around the world. A number of countries have granted patents to inventors for such devices. Most of the patents for bicycle racks have been granted in the United States. Of these, most are design patents that protect the ornamental design of the bicycle racks rather than their functionality or construction. A companion design patent application for the bicycle rack described herein has been concurrently filed with the United States Patent and Trademark Office. A search of the prior art, both patent and non-patent, did not reveal any reference or combination of references that teaches the construction of modular bicycle racks or the use thereof for providing, at the location of an urban planted tree, theft resistant parking of bicycles, providing a park-and-lock station for a plurality of bicycles, and, at the same time, providing protection for said tree.
The invention described herein is for a modular bicycle locking stand that can be firmly anchored to the ground and used in stand-alone mode for parking and locking bicycles in urban and suburban areas. It can be used in combination with other modular bicycle locking stands of the same construction or of different construction so that the plurality of said modules provides a convenient, compact, and attractive park-and-lock facility in urban and suburban areas. Furthermore, a plurality of said modules can be used to surround a tree (or a plurality of trees) in such a manner as both to provide theft-resistant parking for a plurality of bicycles and to prevent bicycles from being either leaned against or attached directly to said tree (or plurality of trees).